"Make history...or be history" has been one of Jeff Charney's disruptive drum-beat mantras about the importance of staying relevant and his relentless effort to be sitting at the head of the pop culture and tech table throughout his storied career that’s been defined by his instinctive ability to see “what’s next.”
Arguably, one of today’s most heralded marketers and winner of more than 100 global awards for breakthrough creativity and business effectiveness, Charney decided to "drop the microphone" (as CMO of Progressive Insurance) after winning Ad Age's "Brand CMO of the Year" award in 2021 honoring the nation's #1 marketer. Even then,he realized that “what’s next” was AI and after finding his successor and completing the baton-passing a year later in 2022, he willingly left the C-Suite of corporate America NOT to be in the marketing business; NOT to be in the tech business. NOT to even be in the AI business. But to be in the “HISTORY” business as founder of MKHSTRY and MKHSTRY AI and ultimately ALLT.AI – ending where the most sophisticated language processing system ever created, the human brain, will ultimately power AI’s future.
The ALLT.AI name was chosen deliberately because in Iceland (the home country of his co-founder, Julius Fridrikkson) ALLT means "everything' and ALLT aims to change "everything,’ Like the MKHSTRY name, ALLT is also embedded in the name because it’s embedded in the company’s ambition.
Below is a “revisionist history” summary of Charney’s journey:
In mid-2022, he founded MKHSTRY, the nation's 1st "invite only" collective of game-changing marketers who share a simple two-word vision -make history. The virtual collective set out to achieve this lofty MKHSTRY goal by combining industry transforming ideas (i.e., Uber, Spotify, Venmo, Tesla, Netflix, Liquid Death, etc.) along with the newest technology (specifically AI) to complement the more traditional print, radio, television, and digital marketing lineup. In addition to establishing an elite group of multi-discipline tech experts to complete the work, Charney and his team constantly search to find the bravest clients to achieve the code-cracking results that meet the MKHSTRY standard.
MKHSTRY turned the existing $1.1 trillion marketing business model on its ear, by establishing the scarcity-model collective. And even if MKHSTRY issues an invitation, the clients must pass a proprietary Make History Index (MHI) to become a client. MHI is a fast-paced, 75-question relevance-gauging "combine" that acts as a bravery barometer to measure joint risk tolerance, decision making, creative flexibility, and ability to change. That way, neither MKHSTRY nor its clients are left waiting for a breakthrough idea to get into the market vs. driving breakthrough ideas into the market... today.
Because of the intense demand following the initial MKHSTRY launch, MKHSTRY was able to complement its model and develop its own patent-pending Al - MKHSTRY Al and its code-cracking creative agent “Madison” that develops enduring campaign concepts in minutes vs months. “Madison,” is the 1st agent to drive concept creation NOT execution. It’s also the 1st agent that is trained by a top-tier CMO to be his digital twin. The patent-pending AI has been trained for 2+ years and gives MKHSTRY's exclusive client base and select brands the opportunity to choose whether to crack-codes via MKHSTRY's H.I. (Human Intelligence), its proprietary Al, or a combination of both.
During a chance meeting, at the 2024 NCAA Women’s Final Four, Charney met Icelandic neurological scientist Dr. Julius Fridrikksen, one of the world’s most respected brain experts & their right-brain/left brain chemistry was immediate. Their work together over nearly two years amplified a hard truth -- that while current AI models were indeed groundbreaking, the systemic inefficiencies (energy hungry compute, carbon, cooling water burden, hallucinations, etc.) are just NOT sustainable compared to the potential clean efficiency of a brain-based model.
That simple insight was the impetus for Charney to forgo a potential sale of MKHSTRY.AI and make a bold strategic pivot to co-found ALLT.AI (ALLT is Icelandic meaning “everything”) with Fridrikkson and a small, but formidable, curated research team at the University of South Carolina. Together, the ALLT.AI team have cracked the code -- developing a patented brain-powered approach with a win-win mission to make AI cleaner, smarter and more effective, while also giving hope to millions impacted with brain disorders. In this bold “what’s next” bet, Charney chose societal impact over exit, brain over brute force and a way to shape AI responsibly to truly “make history.” To learn much more about the innovative models visit ALLT.AI, www.mkhstry.com or www.mkhstry.ai, the ALLT.AI Methods paper as well as check the range of media links at the end of this bio.
A self-described pop-culture junkie from an early age, Charney grew up watching the ground-breaking television shows that have come to define their respective genres. Studying pioneers, the likes of Norman Lear, Matt Groening, Lorne Michaels, and Shonda Rhimes he adapted the underpinnings of their seminal work to create an industry-first "network" approach to the craft of marketing--creating content and running his teams similar to that of a Hollywood entertainment studio. This radically different approach to storytelling has been the defining mainstay of Charney's success as a corporate marketer and led to the development of not just one, but three of the most historic brand icons of this century in the Aflac Duck, Progressive's "Flo" and the parental-life coach, "Dr. Rick."
From an industry perspective, Charney's innovative and highly disruptive marketing has led to him to become one of the most sought-after chief marketing officers not only in marketing consulting, but in terms of exclusive “concert-like” speaking engagements, AI guidance, business executive coaching and employee culture/motivation.
As mentioned earlier, he and his teams have won well over 100 global awards for creativity, communications, and business effectiveness. In mid-2021 Charney was named the "Brand CMO of the Year" by Ad Age, marketing's leading industry publication. Earlier in his tenure at Progressive, he was awarded "Brand Genius: Brand Marketer of the Year" by Adweek Magazine; named one of the "Top 100 Creative People in Business" by Fast Company Magazine; noted as one of the 40 top brand innovators by PR News; listed on the "Creativity 50," recognizing the top 50 creative minds in business by Ad Age; honored with the "Brand Impact Award" from the American Advertising Federation; named "Marketer of the Year" by the Radio Mercury Awards; Crain’s C-Suite award, and received the CMO Clubs' "Marketing Leadership Award" from his industry peers.
Often described as the "Lorne Michaels (SNL) of marketing" because of his similar emphasis on using improv actors to create "funny, but true" relevant content that capitalizes on social and cultural currency, Charney's marketing "network" strategy has grown over the years to create some of the industry's most memorable characters and campaigns.
Most notably, as CMO of Progressive, Charney developed the "Flo" character into what's widely considered the country's #1 brand icon. This often emulated-but never duplicated- character is still the centerpiece of the company's landmark "Superstore" campaign. In addition to the long-running "Flo," her family, her sidekick Jamie, and the rest of the Superstore squad, Charney's slate of cast members include the parental-life coach, 'Dr. Rick'; the half-man, half motorcycle, 'Motaur'; the stadium dwelling Baker Mayfield; the never-grow-up, 'Baby-man'; the sign-twirling, 'Sign Spinner” and even the half-insurance clerk, half-basketball superstar, 'FloBron' featuring LeBron James.
To expand his "network" and explore full story/character development, Charney was a first mover to bring a large portion of his creative in-house along with internal media buying nearly 15 years ago - before it was trendy to do so. In so doing, he was able to drive breakthrough creative development from the ground-up - extending through media buying and agile measurement KPIs. This not only supercharged Progressive's speed-to-market and saved hundreds of millions on the company's $2 billion-plus spend but gave him a unique 360 degree market view and next-gen levers that NO other CMO could pull.
It is yet another reason that the Charney-trained MKHSTRY AI today differentiates itself in the hyper-competitive AI space. Charney's seamless content pipeline fed Progressive's media budget, which more than quadrupled since Charney's arrival to become the nation’s #3 spender (source: Ad Age). His team's marketing efforts helped the company achieve a record eight consecutive years of sales and prospect growth in the competitive insurance marketing category. Now, Charney's pioneering in-house model is increasingly being replicated and adopted. The high-velocity network model is yet another of the many reasons that Progressive is the nation's #2 insurer and why its category stock performance was strengthened.
EXPERIENCE AS A CMO: FROM THE AFLAC DUCK TO QVC & HOMESTORE.COM
At Aflac, he led the development of the "Duck" character (now celebrating it's 26th year in market) with two of the most extensive marketing campaigns in the company's history, "You Don't Know Quack" and "Get the Aflacs." He also drove branding for the company's #2 most-liked commercial in the U.S., several months after Aflac’s Japan marketing team grabbed the country's #1 spot with the innovative "Cat-Duck", another iconic character. Under Charney's creative leadership as senior vice president and CMO, the company moved from brand recognition to brand definition.
Before Aflac, Charney served as senior vice president and CMO of QVC Inc., one of the largest multimedia retailers in the world. He led the company's domestic and international marketing and helmed a complete overhaul of the brand. He also worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs, developing their brands/businesses in a pre-Shark Tank-like driver.
He previously held posts as a CMO at real estate aggregator Homestore.com (now Move.com and parent of Realtor.com), and was the chief creative officer at Fringe Ventures, LLC-an experiential-based digital marketing and consulting company he founded.
NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE (NBDB) CREATIVE MARKETING "FIRSTS"
A strong believer in that first movers have the ultimate advantage, Charney pioneered hundreds of Never Been Done Before (NBDB) programs in earlier jobs that include the following "Top 10."
He is a member of the Board of Directors of Investor's Exchange (IEX), the highly transparent NY-based stock exchange and the subject of author Michael Lewis' best-selling Flash Boys novel. He also serves on the Dean's Advisory Board for the School of Arts and Sciences at The Ohio State University and the OSU Board for the Center for Software Innovation as well as being on the Dean's Advisory Board for the College of Information and Communications at the University of South Carolina.
Charney holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism (summa cum laude) from the University of South Carolina (USC) and a Master of Arts degree in journalism (highest honors) from The Ohio State University (OSU). He was awarded Alumni of the Year from USC in 2023 and Alumni of the Year from OSU in 2022.
INDUSTRY THOUGHT-LEADER: SELECTED NATIONAL MEDIA LINKS
A passionate evangelist for the marketing craft, Charney is a key industry spokesperson and thought-leader and has been featured in hundreds of articles.